Drug Control: Reauthorization of the Office of National Drug Control
Policy

(Testimony, 10/05/93, GAO/T-GGD-94-7).

Although the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) has reported
a drop in casual drug use, no indication exists that progress has been
made on the second front of the drug war--the fight against hard-core
drug use.  ONDCP, if reauthorized, must do a better job of assessing
progress being made under the national drug control strategies.  Also,
ONDCP and the federal drug control agencies need to cooperate more to
develop, assess, and coordinate national drug control policy.  In
particular, ONDCP and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
have had major disagreements over the collection of drug data, and ONDCP
has threatened to withhold clearance of drug surveys to obtain HHS
compliance with ONDCP requests--a move that GAO considers inappropriate.
The three-tiered budget review and certification process envisioned by
the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 has proven impractical.  Because of
staff constraints and other factors, ONDCP has limited its reviews
mainly to agency budgets and has only selectively certified
program-level budgets.  The Pentagon submits its drug budget to ONDCP
but does not provide a breakdown of separate "agency" drug budgets,
making budget comparisons among agencies difficult.  Because of the
continuing need for a central planning agency to lead and coordinate the
nation's drug control efforts, GAO concludes that ONDCP should be
reauthorized.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  T-GGD-94-7
     TITLE:  Drug Control: Reauthorization of the Office of National
             Drug Control Policy
      DATE:  10/05/93
   SUBJECT:  Drug abuse
             National policies
             Interagency relations
             Law enforcement
             Drug trafficking
             Narcotics
             Budget administration
             Intelligence gathering operations
             Controlled substances
             Data collection operations
IDENTIFIER:  National Drug Control Strategy

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